Always Together
by Boussole
Summary: Universes don't matter. Love endures. [HollyJuliet, rated T for mild language only] Rewrite of Blue Yeti's Dreamwalking for the Remix Redux challenge, and 12LH: Femslash. Shortlisted for Best AU in the 2006 Orion Awards.


AN: This was a rewrite of Blue Yeti's (www . fanfiction . net / u / 138358) brilliantly wonderful Dreamwalking (www . fanfiction . net / s / 2812059 / 1 /), which should probably be read first. I wrote this for the Remix Redux challenge (rexmixredux . livejournal . com / profile), where everyone is assigned another author and has to rewrite a fic of theirs within a couple weeks. (Incredible fun, I really recommend it to anyone looking for a creative challenge.)

As always, concrit is greatly appreciated. I'll try to respond to all reviews, so please leave an e-mail address for anonymous reviews.

Always Together

The little girl calls out: "Holly!"  
... (who? what?)  
"Holly?"  
... (where? when?)  
"Holly..."  
... (_why_ (not)?)

Juliet weeps.  
"You said you'd come back," she whispers.  
As if in answer, the tree  
(it was always there...?)  
creaks and shudders, and trapped at the very top is  
"Holly!"  
(or is it?)

Juliet doesn't stop to wonder.  
"I'll save you!"  
She tries to climb the tree,  
(Dom, come help me!)  
but can't reach high enough.  
She can't get to Holly.

Holly flies  
away-far, far away.  
(Please!)  
Juliet can't fly  
fast enough  
high enough  
far enough.

Juliet can't fly.

Goodbye, Holly.

"No!"

---

Juliet screamed.

But then Domovoi hugged her tightly, and the darkness was chased away. "It's alright, Juliet," he whispered comfortingly. "I'm here."

Juliet hugged him back, her tears staining his shoulder. "Holly was flying away," she sniffed, "and I had to find her. But she didn't come back."

Domovoi stroked her hair softly. "Don't worry," he reassured her, "we'll look for her tomorrow."

"She's my favourite doll," Juliet told him, beginning to smile.

"I know." He smiled back. "We'll find her. I promise."

"She'll come back to me?" she asked, worried.

Domovoi hugged her again. "Yes, sweetheart. She'll come back."

---

It's been a year  
since we were together  
_laughter and kisses_  
and I wonder  
_hopes for the future_  
if she still  
remembers.

_It mattered._

Maybe  
she's found someone else  
_beautiful Promises_  
and she's forgotten  
_declarations of love_  
me/her/us-  
everything.

_She can't have._

What is it  
that stops her  
_true dreams of love_  
from crossing the line  
_happiness_  
away from  
love?

_Proof denies faith._

"She loves you, Holly."

A small smile. "But..."

"You just have to know."

Whispered: "I love her."

"She'd never forget about you-"

Never?

"-how could she?"

She smiles, this time for real, because she knows.

---

I see

_two poets_  
one waiting for the other  
one who may only dream  
and then different reflections in the same mirror.

_twin sisters_  
one who doesn't want to let go  
one who almost does  
and then far too many broken dreams.

_a duet of love_  
laughs because they're always together  
tears because they never are  
and then desperate dreams of coming back.

"'Always together,' he said."

"Yes."

Two smiles.

"'Desperate dreams of coming back'?"

Two laughs...

...A year later, she looks at the cold grave.

Asks Domovoi why they weren't ever together; then wonders why Juliet's never coming back.

---

"They'd never allow a female elf in Recon."

Juliet

"Damn bigots will have to get used to it, then." Juliet sticks out her jaw. Holly smiles and caresses it lovingly.

loves

"You're sure you want to do this, Juliet?" Holly asks. "It's dangerous."

someone else.

"Life's no fun without a little danger," Juliet says jokingly, playing with Holly's hair.

In a cell,

Holly nuzzles Juliet's shoulder. "It's just..."

a Mud Girl

"Holly, I'll be fine," Juliet reassures her. "Nothing's going to happen to me."

brings her

Holly believes her, but somehow still can't shake off a bad dream of...something.

fruit.

---

"Holly's coming back," Juliet insists pleadingly. "Tonight."

"No, she's not," I tell her, more bluntly and impatiently than yesterday or the day before. She's got to face the truth.

She whispers pathetically: "But she has to. I...need her."

I sigh. "You can't put your life on hold just because she's not here. You're _twins_, not two halves of the same person."

She chokes. "You don't get it. ...She loves me."

I don't say anything.

"Holly's coming back," she repeats, desperate. I can hear the _"isn't she?"_ in her voice.

One infinity, two infinity, three infinity...

"Yeah, Jules. Sure she will."

---

Holly walks into the cell, bearing a tray of fruit and wearing mirrored sunglasses; and smiles at the fairy. The girl smiles back.

Holly confides her secret childhood dream of being a fairy.

The fairy shares her own desire: to see true beauty. "Could you possibly..."

"Yes?"

"...show me your eyes? Just for one second?"

Holly looked at her doubtfully. _Artemis said...but how's he going to know?_

"I won't hurt you."

"Well...just for one second."

Then: for a moment, the fairy merely gazes at her in wonder.

"Your lover's here," an angelic voice-Juliet?-tells her.

Nothing matters except-

_Jul!_

---

Ilex had been taken from Iulia, to the Underworld.

(What if me and Juliet couldn't see each other forever?)

"Forget about her." Iulia refused.

(I'd never just forget. Best friends don't give up on each other.)

Iulia journeyed through a tunnel to the Underworld. Ilex was allowed to follow Iulia back-

(Yes!)

-but Iulia couldn't look back to see her. Iulia was scared Ilex wouldn't be following.

(I'd be scared, but I know Holly'd follow me.)

At the end of the tunnel, Iulia turned back.

(No!)

Ilex was there...and then she wasn't there...

(NO!!!)

...and then she was never there.

---

They're back from their honeymoon, smiling at each other the way they used to so many years ago.

"You're back! What did you see? How was it?"

"_Midsummer's Night Dream_."

_Midsummer's Night Dream_: where they went on their very first date. So long ago.

But they're smiling at each other more innocently than usual, and holding hands more shyly, and...something else is different. They're too...

What?

"Ooh, Holly and Juliet?!" an old acquaintance squeals. "Nice! They're really cute together! Dunno if they'll last long, though."

_They have..._ "They will-" A pause. "...?" Confusion.

Memories...a flood dries to a trickle...?

---

They say we have about nine dreams a night, but we only remember one.


End file.
